Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition

Originally composed for solo piano (and later orchestrated by Ravel), Pictures at an Exhibition was written by Modest Mussorgsky after he visited a retrospective exhibit of the works of his friend Victor Hartmann.  The collection of pieces represents a promenade from painting to painting, pausing in front of works called The Gnome, Ancient Castle, and Great Gate of Kiev.  Mussorgsky was a member of a nationalistic, anti-conservatory group of young musicians, and he had an unusual ability to interpret visual art in musical expression.

Elgar's Symphony No. 1

Born the son of a piano tuner and educated by playing in and conducting small amateur bands (including that of the Worcester Pauper Lunatic Asylum), Sir Edward Elgar had already written the Enigma variations, four Pomp and Circumstance marches, and the oratorio Dream of Gerontius before composing his Symphony No. 1 in 1908 at the age of fifty.  While his colleagues Vaughan Williams and Holst encouraged a return to folk music, Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 pushed English music into the romanticism of the rest of the European community, and earned Elgar the nickname “the English Mahler.”

Mahler Symphony No. 3

In summer 1895, Gustav Mahler went on vacation.  He’d had a busy year conducting in Hamburg, and went to his cabin to do what he always did in his free time—compose.  He outlined a program for his new work—Pan’s awakening, the Bacchic entrance of summer—but leaves the movement titles out of the program.  In this Symphony No. 3, the largest and longest in the current symphonic repertoire, he leaves the story up to the listener—according to Mahler, “you just have to bring along ears and a heart and—not least—willingly surrender to the rhapsodist.”